Is poking still rude, or has cyberspace, specifically Facebook, made it a gesture of endearment? For those of you not well-versed in the workings or language of Facebook, if you’re not ‘friends’ with someone whose profile you view, rather than a full rundown of their life (or the part they’ve chosen to share with the cyber world), you can only see a photo of that person accompanied by the options: Send a Message, View Friends, Add as Friend, Poke! Why poking?

The other day I logged on and received a notification ‘Mr, lets called him Al, has poked you. Send a Message or Poke Mr. Al Back. Without even thinking I reflexively hit ‘Poke Back.” He was kind of cute and I figured he thought the same about me and was using the poking measure as a way to subtley flirt. When I logged on the next time I had another message, “ Mr. Al has poked you, Send a Message or Poke Mr. Al Back.” We could poke each other all day, but that would be boring, and more than a little lame. This time I chose the ‘Send a Message” option and wrote to Mr. Al ‘Isn’t it rude to poke a girl?”

I expected Mr. Al to respond with something like ‘Haha, sorry, just trying to get your attention, I’m Al,” or something to that effect. But, instead Mr. Al wrote back, “I’m so sorry, I think someone broke into my Facebook account and was poking people.” Really?Why am I highly suspicious of that story, especially when afterwards Mr. Al continued to message me and then ‘invited me’ as a friend.

I guess poking is a new-age way to flirt, but my advice to potential pokers out there is to keep the poke to one and if you’re going to be a poker, own up to your poking!